Star-studded Politics . . .

April 07, 1985|By (Michael Sneed, Cheryl Lavin and Kathy O`Malley).

Is there trouble in the stars for Sen. John Glenn (D., Ohio) and his plans for re-election? Dennis Kucinich, the former ``bad boy mayor of Cleveland,`` has a promise from Shirley (``I talk to crystals``) MacLaine that she`ll raise $1 million if he will run for the Senate. The two are old buddies through Tom Hayden and that whole Hollywood connection, and Kucinich was MacLaine`s date when she won her 1984 best actress Oscar for ``Terms of Endearment.``

GOOD NEWS . . .

-- An anonymous benefactor in Chicago has donated thousands of dollars in recent months to food banks, churches, families and individuals, including a terminally ill 10-year-old and his family, who leave Monday on the youngster`s dream trip to Disneyland. The good guy/gal has gone undiscovered and is known only by the name signed on the checks: ``Robin Hood.``

-- Finally, some good news to report from Channel 5: Morale, once lower than the ratings, is lifting, and fervent prayers emanating from the Merchandise Mart are asking that the Nielsen and Arbitron ratings will follow suit. ``The management is doing something better around here,`` an insider said. ``Communications are better, people are being encouraged to come out and say what they think. We had a staff meeting the other night and it wasn`t nearly as bitter as earlier ones.``

business cards to anybody who wants `em (and to those who don`t), told the folks invited to his Cubs management/media party here that Francis Albert Sinatra also was on the guest list, but few were surprised that ``Old Blue Eyes`` didn`t show. Caray, incidentally, sounds like a press agent for Jimmy Piersall. He`s telling players and reporters that his former broadcast booth mate`s ``The Truth Hurts`` is a good read.

-- Memo from Mesa: The Cubs` advance sales of more than 1.3 million tickets is especially good news to Ron Cey, whose contract includes an

``attendance clause`` that gives him an extra $500,000 when 1.5 million tickets are sold. . . . Ryne Sandberg says it`s okay with him that manager Jim Frey isn`t playing him every day as he did last year at spring training; tired him out, says Ryne. . . . Frey, incidentally, is battling allergies, even in sunny Arizona. . . . One of Dallas Green`s favorite pastimes is talking about his son, John, a pitcher on the University of Arizona`s team. . . . Comedian Tom Dreesen, a native of south suburban Harvey and the first president of the Die-Hard Cubs Fan Club, passed up three engagements so he could watch the Cubs in spring training.

SMALL-SCREEN SCENE . . .

Kristy McNichol has been signed to play the lead in ``Love, Mary,`` a CBS-TV movie that begins filming this month in Vancouver, British Columbia. The movie is based on the true story of Mary Groda-Lewis, an alumna of Oregon`s juvenile reformatory system who fought her way back to respectability and became a medical doctor at age 35. . . . Much to the delight of the folks back home, Phil Donahue took a Freudian slip into a commercial Friday by saying, ``We`ll be back in Chicago after these messages . . . `` A guest reminded him that he broadcasts from New York. . . . Anyone planning an outdoor wedding, graduation party or picnic should contact the ``Today``

show`s executive producer, Steve Friedman. He managed to pull off nine weeks of ``Summer Sunday,`` and five days in Rome, without a single drop of rain falling. When the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican appeared on the show, security was so tight around the trailer that served as a ``green room``

(where guests wait for their turn to appear on the show) that an NBC staff member who left her briefcase there returned to find police crawling all over it, searching for a bomb.

STAR TRACKS . . .

It`ll be a Sex Symbol Festival April 18 at a private reception here for

``the newest stars in the Jovan Musk constellation``: Morgan Fairchild, Lee Horsley, and Jayne Kennedy. Billy Dee Williams has schedule problems and can`t make it. . . . INC. hears that one of the first things Stacey ``Mike Hammer`` Keach will do when he is released from prison in England will be to get divorced. . . . After two years of litigation, Pamela Eldred Levey finally was divorced last week from Dr. Jules Levey. The former Miss America (1970) walked away with her maiden name, their 4-year-old child, the couple`s digs in Farmington Hills, Mich., the station wagon, the furniture, some cash, alimony and (we presume) her crown.